Rajat Sharma

It was nothing less than a storm in Maharashtra politics. There were straws in the wind about the impending storm.

India TV reporter said, for the last one month, meetings were going on between the district administration, police and local community on whether to allow the yatra to take place or not. There was no yatra after Holi, but after four days, all of a sudden, thousands of villagers came out and took part in the yatra. The local administration was helpless. 

On polling day in Nandigram, we showed on India TV, how villagers, both men and women, fearing for their lives, were walking towards the polling booth near their village, with central security forces accompanying them.

Mamata Banerjee stayed in Nandigram the entire night on Wednesday to oversee her party agents preparing for the polls. All roads leading to Nandigram were sealed by security forces, to stop miscreants from entering the area.

Mamata Banerjee, a hard-nosed, peripatetic politician, who normally never spends much time in one place while in the thick of electioneering, has been cornered in Nandigram for the last three days. 

We, in India, are treading that dangerous path. By defying standard Covid protocols, we are throwing caution to the winds. We must know that Covid vaccines provide us with protection, but there is no guarantee that you may not be infected.

It is astonishing that a Covid hospital was running on the top floor, and parties were going on inside banquet halls on the second floor. Hundreds of people used to visit the banquet halls, shops and eateries daily. In a nutshell, under one roof there were Corona patients, partygoers and shoppers. This is the height of negligence.

India on Thursday recorded the highest single-day count of fresh Covid cases (59,117) in the last 159 days, with Maharashtra leading with 35,952 new cases on a single day. 

On Wednesday, as India recorded its highest daily Covid tally (53,364)  in over five months, news came about the detection of a “double mutant” among 771 variants found in 18 states across the country.

Fadnavis alleged that Rashmi Shukla, Commissioner, Intelligence, had submitted the report to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray six months ago, but no action was taken. Instead, Rashmi Shukla was shunted out and her promotion was held up. “I have 6.3 GB data with me that includes call intercepts.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, after calling for a probe into ex-police chief Parambir Singh’s charge, has now done a U-turn, and has given his Home Minister a clean chit. On Monday, the former police chief approached the Supreme Court challenging his transfer and demanded a CBI probe into the extortion charge.

We are today witnessing a sea change in governance. There was a time when underworld gangs used to extort money and Mumbai police used to catch the extortionists. Now, police officers are assigned to carry out extortions and send the money to the minister. 

For the first time in the last 111 days, the daily number of Covid-19 cases in India crossed 40,000 to reach 40,944.

India is witnessing its second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, with 39,670 fresh cases recorded on Thursday.

How he was being used as a pawn by powerful political forces in Maharashtra? Did top leaders of Shiv Sena provide support and protection to Sachin Vaze?

In September, 2009, the Supreme Court had ruled no unauthorized construction shall be permitted in the name of temple, church, mosque or gurdwara on public streets, public parks or places. 

The most surprising part of this was that the vehicle that was found filled with explosives near Antilia, was parked near Mumbai Police assistant inspector Sachin Vaze’s residence for one whole week. The other getaway car belonged to Sachin Vaze’s Crime Investigation Unit.

Now that her injury has become the talking point among common voters in Bengal, the Trinamool Congress leaders are expecting a huge sympathy wave in favour of their leader. Both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP have demanded probe into the incident in Nandigram in which Mamata was injured.

He quoted a Swedish institute V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy). V-Dem claims, it works with more than 3,500 country experts and it has a global advisory board.

According to doctors, “presently she is traumatized. She has a severe injury in her left heel and ankle bone area. There are minor soft tissue and ligament injuries. There are also injuries on her right shoulder and right forearm as well.”